Wireless communication provides tetherless access to mobile users and addresses the requirements of two specific and disjoint domains: voice telephony and indoor data LANs. Cellular telephone networks have extended the domain of telephone service over a wireless last hop, while mobile-IP LANs such as WaveLAN and RangeLAN do the same for indoor users of TCP/IP data networks. Advances with wireless technology and high-speed integrated service wired networking promises to provide mobile users with comprehensive multimedia information access in the near future. For example, Personal Communication Services (PCS) are a broad range of individualized telecommunication services which enable individuals or devices to communicate irrespective of where they are at anytime. Personal Communication Networks (PCN) are a new type of wireless telephone system communicating via low-power antennas. PCNs offer a digital wireless alternative to the traditional wired line.
When transmitting a message signal over a communication channel, both analog and digital transmission methods can be used. Digital methods are preferred due to advantages over analog methods, including: increased immunity to channel noise and interference; flexible operation of the system; common format for the transmission of different kinds of message signals; improved security of communications through the use of digital encryption; and increased capacity.
Cellular and PCS technologies have evolved to utilize digital signals in order to provide higher capacity and improve communication quality. This signal is a composite digital signal which represents a block of adjacent channels. In selecting a channel, the use of multipliers are not desirable, as they are computationaly expensive. Efficient digital channel selection is desirable.